


Operation Grandpa

by marty_mcfly_jr



Series: The Hero [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:08:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24925909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marty_mcfly_jr/pseuds/marty_mcfly_jr
Summary: OK so I wrote this as Violet, But I don't particularly care who Henry marries. Someone later told me that Ella is the one? I don't know because I didn't watch too much past season 3 although I do know almost all the storylines through gifs and spoilers. So if you want to change the name to Ella, go ahead.This will be the beginning of a happier ending for our Mr. Gold. (With time travel, of course)And Henry is STILL a fan of Harry Potter
Series: The Hero [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1039085
Kudos: 7





	Operation Grandpa

Henry sighed, “an era is ending…”

Snow put an arm around his shoulders “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said

“Ah, my dad was an old man,” he brooded, “it’s how life goes. People get old, people die…”

They were at Neal’s funeral Henry sitting between Snow and Regina.

“You are the only two left from your generation,” said Henry, and turning to Regina, “you’re the only parent I have left,” he said putting his arm around her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Regina sighed, “I will miss your father almost as much as I miss your mother.”

Ava, one of Henry’s grandchildren, asked Regina and Snow, “are you also going to die soon?”

They both laughed heartily at the todler’s lack of tact. Henry’s son, her dad, gave her a stern look.

Ava wiggled a little. She was settled comfortably on Henry’s lap.

“Oh, you can’t blame the child,” Snow chuckled, “It was just a little more than a year ago that we sat here at Emma’s funeral,” she sighed, “and then David…”

“And the year before that we lost Belle,” said Regina turning to Ava, “We’re OK with that, darling, we lived a long and beautiful life.”

“Even I am an old man, and he was my dad,” Henry said to Ava, “why don’t you say something about great-great-grandpa Neal. How do you remember him?”

“Super old,” she said, “and he taught me to play bingo!”

The rest of the family sluted the child adoringly as another great-grandchild of Neal stepped up to say something.

“How old are you?” Ava asked Henry after the services.

“I will be eighty eight next week,” he said swinging her off his lap and standing up to leave.

Ava ran off with one of her cousins, whispering to her something conspirational, and Henry and his wife took Snow’s and Regina’s wheelchairs and walked towards home.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Henry’s wife, Violet, said when they were in bed that night.

“Yep,” he sighed, “I feel this way after every funeral.”

“It was a beautiful service,” she noted, cuddling snugly with him.

“I know,” she concluded when Henry remained silent and thoughtful, “even more reason to think about your grandfather.”

Henry sighed. “The more I think about it, the more I believe we can do it,” he said.

“Your mom would never let you, and neither would I.”

“But years passed already. Do you believe there’ll be anyone in Neverland anymore?”

Violet lifted herself up a drop and leaned on her elbow, silver hair spilling around her arm. “Your mom explained this. Only the most dangerous villains are there now. Those are the ones who probably killed everyone else!”

“I believe we can sneak in for a few minutes,” Henry insisted. “We will fly right out of there at the first sign of danger, even if we don’t find my grandpa Gold’s bones”

“I guess we are very old already,” Violet caved in, “and you’ve been working on your magic airplane for most of your life for this purpouse… ”

Henry smiled excitedly at Violet. She felt the youthful excitement electrify her. They were kids again, about to do mischief.

Henry had been dreaming about this mission almost since childhood. It bothered him tremendously that they never had a funeral for his grandpa Gold. Even his grandmother, Milah, got to be buried decently, in spite of the fact that it was a bit hasty.

“We have no monument in his memory,” Henry bemoaned, “after our generation dies out he will be completely forgotten. We have to at least try to bring his remains back even if it’s only… you know, I’m not even sure what we’ll find. ”

“You know,” Violet commented, “the way you describe your grandfather it’s hard to believe how he overlooked this detail, of having a monument, when he gave Belle those fake memories.”

“My grandpa Gold never thought much of himself. He probably didn’t want to bother with something he was sure no one would ever visit. He never dreamt that we would find out what he did, or that we would consider it heroic.”

“We’re not telling anyone until we get back,” Violet said getting out of bed and starting to dress.

“We’re leaving right now?” Henry jumped out of bed very quickly for a man his age. It wasn’t typical of Violet to make on-the-spot decisions and then jump right in. He was ready to leave before she even got to put on her shoes. No need to give her time to change her mind.

They walked out into the chilly night air, two very old people wrapped up in scarves and warm coats. Henry found his beloved airplane hidden behind some bushes and dried twigs. Violet knew that Henry visited that machine almost daily. She laughed at his buoyant expression as he prepared the magic plane for takeoff. He looked like he could hardly believe that he will finally use this machine and not just perfect it.

The magic plane glided gracefully through the night sky. Silent as a shadow it maneuvered toward Neverland: second star to the right, and straight on till morning.

Henry and Violet sat, holding hands, as they floated over Neverland’s waters. Violet squeezed Henry’s hand and pointed excitedly at the middle of the ocean. She thought she saw a pitate’s ship. Henry hoped the dangerous people of the island, however many are left, are on that ship, far from the island. He wanted the two of them to be left alone so they could sort through the many bones on the island.

They let the airplane descend, like a magic carpet. Henry expected the vehicle to find the right spot easily, because he used many potions and spells when building the system. The machine should know where best to land.

The ground was strewn with many dried up bones. It appeared that after losing their main victim, the Neverland residents started war with each other. Each group not able to tolerate the other, they killed each other left and right.

“Look how many bones there are,” Violet observed, picking one femur up from the ground, “how will you know which ones are your grandfather’s?”

She looked around, when she noticed that Henry was quiet, and saw him already holding a bunch of bones under his arm and focusing intensely on the ground touching the bones as he sorted through them. She walked closer to him and looked at the bones he picked up. They were all fractured in many places and had scratches and dents on them. She wondered if that was how Henry knew they were his granspa’s. They both knew the man was tortured to death, so it made sense that the most damaged bones were his.

“How do you know-” she started.

“Here, touch this one,” he held one bone he was picking up for her to feel.

“Do you feel it? Like a consistent hum.” He said.

Violet was used to Henry feeling things when handling inanimate objects, and waited for him to explain.

She, herself, never felt anything, but Henry, while ‘talking’ to his objects, always managed to forget that he was the only one with that talent.

“This feeling of pure happiness.” Henry continued.

“Happiness?” This was the last thing Violet expected.

Henry looked up at her shocked voice, and said, “Beneath all the terror he felt, touch it. Can you feel it? Under all that pain and fear and shame, his happiness never wavered. He knew my dad was safe.”

Henry looked at her then, remembering how he always had to explain his eccentric behavior around objects that spoke to him. But this time, instead of explaining, he used his best british accented ‘Ron’ voice from his favorite book series, Harry Potter, and quoted, “so you’re gonna suffer, Harry, but you will be very happy about it.”

Violet laughed. She remembered that quote from the third book. When Ron and Harry were in divination class and Ron was trying to read Harry’s tea leaves.

Henry has been a fan of the books for almost eighty years now. Everything reminded him of Harry Potter. Years ago, after she started dating Henry, she realized that she just had to read the books herself if she wanted to understand all his many quotes.

“It was always just funny when I read this quote. I never thought I’d know someone who lived it.”

“You know, Henry, all joking aside, you can confidently say that your grandfather died happy. He did have the happy ending along with the rest of the world that he saved. You were so worried, but now you can be at ease.”

Henry nodded. “He never regretted making the hard choice even while he suffered. He really loved my dad that much”

“I don’t even think the choice was hard for him to make,” Violet mused, “only the consequences of making that choice were hard.”

Flying home, Violet couldn’t resist looking through a telescope to see which villains were still alive in Neverland. “Ho look, ” she said pointing at the ship, “you’ll never believe it! It’s Hook and Pan!”

“Ha!” Henry replied, “I’m sure they’re having a blast. ”

***************

Walking home from the funeral ceremony, Violet said, “your grandpa gave your dad something that he never had. He put your dad first. No one, ever put Mr. Gold first. His own father clearly didn’t.”

“True,” Henry agreed. “He knew how to love, even though he was never taught how”

Violer, then, preceded to make her best Dumbledore voice and said, “Yes, you can love, Harry, and, given everything that has happened to you, it is a great and remarkable thing. You are still too young to understand how unusual you are .”

“Grandpa wasn’t too young to understand how unusual he was,” Henry corrected her, “but he was certainly too broken to realize how unusual it is for a man, who had just heard his own father tell him how he was nothing but an unloved, lonely lost boy, to then save the town. He still found the strength to face that father, and tell his son how he used an entire curse just to find him – so he could tell him ‘I love you’ and make sure he had a chance at happiness. All while calling himself, not his father, a villain."


End file.
